I’m Alive!

This olde blogge is again on life support. Life is just so exhausting.

I’m not on life support, just a tired old burnout who is sick of her job. I decided this weekend that I wanna be a Disney YouTuber. I watched a couple I watch semi-regularly do a “Halfway to Halloween” event at the Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom, with a fancy charcuterie spread, then a dessert party INSIDE THE HAUNTED MANSION! They got comped to stay at Port Orleans Riverside to do this event. This is their job. They get paid to do this.

Clearly, I have made poor life choices.

Just half kidding; I know that those Disney YouTubers work their asses off to create content and edit video and it takes YEARS of hard work earning a few pennies here and there to get a following that leads to getting comped at resorts to promote things like that. At that level it is a real job and an exhausting one, but damn, it beats the shit out of my job.

So, what has happened lately?

Last week I had to ride with coworkers to a meeting three hours away. A guy I’ve been acquainted with for 8 years, who seems very mild-mannered and soft spoken, drove our rented Chevy Suburban with three row seating. After we were on the road we discovered that he’s a fucking maniac behind the wheel. We were driving in pouring rain on the interstate and he was aggressively weaving in and out of traffic, braking hard, basically doing all the things we are trained NOT to do by our employer. I kept my eyes on my phone, we all tried making conversation to distract ourselves from imminent death. I did note that the guy riding shotgun reached up to grip the hand hold at the door frame more than a few times, while we attempted to act like it was all cool. We were fine. It was fine.

We somehow made it to the corporate office, where we were treated to a 90 minute speech from a leader and room temp box lunches. They didn’t even have cold bottled water for the people invited to this shindig. Never. Again.

At least the rain stopped before our return trip, but the driving didn’t get better. At one point he missed a turn and made a u-turn in front of an oncoming pickup truck, and one of my coworkers began speaking out loud, with great passion, in Spanish. Our driver thought she was cussing him out. We all corrected him in unison: “She’s PRAYING!”

It’s a funny story now because we all survived, but seriously THAT WAS NOT OKAY. Just another entry in the I’m Too Old For this Shit Files.

And then there was the fire.

My ex-son-in-law and his girlfriend rent a house nearby, which was really convenient for shared custody of The Kid. It was, because yeah, there was a fire at the house last weekend. Totally not their doing, a freak issue with the pool pump that caught the rear of the house on fire as well, at 3 AM. No, the smoke detectors didn’t go off, probably because the fire was concentrated outside, but yes, everybody got out safely and the fire dept got there fast and put it out, but the house will need extensive repairs because a fair chunk of the rear living room wall is no longer there, as the fire dept had to open it up to make sure the fire was out.

The Kid is with her mom while her dad and GF are camped in a hotel, and apparently their belongings weren’t damaged much, though I suspect the living room furniture will need some real airing out.

Gidget update: I put out a request for recommendations on our neighborhood Facebook page about a new vet, because I’ve been very underwhelmed by the current office, and got a recommendation for a guy who seems like the last of the old timey vets. He left the corporate practice I’d given up on and went out on his own in a small office, where his son has now joined him.

Gidget is terrified of vets, but when she met this guy, she actually relaxed. She even let him look at her terrible remaining teeth, which are probably going to have to go soon. (That’s her Yorkie side; Murphy had to have a major dental around this age too.)

The vet spent a LONG time with her, gave her a thorough exam, discussed her allergies and anxiety, etc. and put her on an allergy shot which worked miracles with her picking and scratching; we are all sleeping so much better, it’s amazing. (The previous office sold me a $35 bottle of shampoo that did nothing, and never even suggested allergy meds.) So at long last, we have a vet I can trust. Fingers crossed he doesn’t retire next year.

I want to retire. I want to win the lottery. I want to win the lottery and THEN retire.

I owe y’all a rant about DeFascist, but the short rant is: He’s crazy, none of his wild threats about “building a prison next to Disney” etc. are real or mean anything. He really is crazy, even too crazy for the Republican Party, which is seriously batshit and full on fascist at this point. Disney isn’t leaving Florida. In fact, they just announced a massive affordable housing initiative as well as new park expansions. Nitwits who suggest that Disney could just pick up and move are nitwits. Disney World covers 43 square miles and has billions of dollars of infrastructure investments, and none of that is going anywhere. DeShithead’s political future is going nowhere fast. It’ll be silly and stupid in the meantime, but ultimately, it’ll be fine.

Guardians of the Galaxy is awesome. More intense than I expected, but smooth and crazy fun, with an amazing pre-show experience. The transition from the place where you wait to board the ride to the next area is jaw-dropping sophisticated technology and everybody gasped. Highly recommended.